


Shipshape

by misura



Category: Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003)
Genre: M/M, Treat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-01
Updated: 2017-08-01
Packaged: 2018-12-11 23:23:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,001
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11724735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misura/pseuds/misura
Summary: Tom woke to the sensation of being touched -measured, his sleep-fogged brain supplied, catching sight of the instrument in Stephen's hands, and to Stephen and Jack having an argument.





	Shipshape

**Author's Note:**

  * For [HotUtilitarian](https://archiveofourown.org/users/HotUtilitarian/gifts).



Tom woke to the sensation of being touched - _measured_ , his sleep-fogged brain supplied, catching sight of the instrument in Stephen's hands, and to Stephen and Jack having an argument.

(Jack would call it a 'conversation', pointing out that civilized men may disagree and yet retain their agreeability, while Stephen would scowl, nevertheless forgiving and forgetting everything said and done the moment Jack sought him out again for company or advice.)

" - effect on certain parts of the male anatomy," Stephen was saying.

Jack looked somewhere in between bemused and amused, as he was more wont to do than he probably was aware of himself. It was not impossible, Tom thought, for a man to regard in such a manner a person dear to his heart yet not desire him in a way that would lead to him getting flogged and turned off for conduct unbecoming anyone serving in His Majesty's Navy.

Not impossible, no, but not damned likely, either. Tom knew full well the expression that appeared on his own face when he bore witness to Jack pulling off the impossible as if it were a simple thing, easily done.

"I do beg your pardon, Tom - did I wake you?" Stephen peered at him through ill-fitting opticals.

Jack chuckled. He was as little dressed as Tom, but seemed infinitely more at ease, perhaps secure in the knowledge that Stephen had already taken every measurement of his body the good doctor might desire.

"Surely it can only be considered fair to wake a man after you were responsible for helping him nod off in the first place. Have a heart, Stephen, and ease on the lectures."

Stephen narrowed his eyes. "They are not lectures. Rather, I attempt to demonstrate a point by engaging in a series of inquiries. If you find my doing so tiresome, that is no one's problem but your own."

"I fear I did not fully catch your question, doctor." Tom tried to look humble, a mite sheepish.

"Well, that is because I did not ask one of you," Stephen said. "Will you hold still only a moment?"

Jack shook his head, watching the goings-on in the way an audience might watch a play. He looked sleep-flushed yet awake, eager to get back to work. Tom wondered how many bells remained of the night, and how many minutes of sleep he might snatch away from Stephen's mania for measurements and Jack's passion for the sort of physical activity best left unnamed.

"You know, Tom, you needn't put up with any of this," Jack said, as Stephen squinted at his little note book. "Lord knows I don't, when the mood sits ill with me."

"Thank you, sir. I'm fine, sir."

A mistake, possibly, to use that form of address twice in short succession; Stephen's squint turned into something closer to a frown as he looked up at the two of them. "He has a name."

"And he may use it, if he so chooses," Jack said. "If 'sir' I am, then 'sir' I will be, and damned glad to be called so by such a fine and loyal friend."

"Obedient, also." Stephen made the word sound distasteful, somehow. Perverse.

"We all of us practice obedience to king and country, I should hope," Jack said. "At least in such ways that matter - I shall not speak of laws and rules that having no bearing on the outcome of this war, nor on one's ability to valliantly go into battle when battle is called for."

"I was actually referring to a more personal obedience," Stephen said. "Look at him. He worships you the way a man worships a false idol, seeing neither harm nor wrong in anything you do."

Bad enough, to have Stephen expose his body for the sake of his measurements. Worse, to hear his own weaknesses, his own heart bared so callously.

"Perhaps, unlike others, our Tom is content with seeing none where none are present," Jack said. "Your good self, Stephen, finds fault as a physician might, never content to simply let off with an all's well. One must always look into shedding a trifle excess weight, or gaining some, or limiting one's intake of spirits, or rich food, or sleep more, or less. You nag as if you were one's own mother, dear."

"With more conviction, I should hope. Certainly with greater reason."

"Am I so ill-kept, then, doctor?" Tom asked, already bracing himself for a torrent of advice, none of which he would have the least chance of following.

"Not at all." Stephen smiled, his face softening. Jack scoffed. "A few small things that bear watching, perhaps, but nothing I would call serious. You are in perfect health, Mr. Pullings."

"And fully measured to your heart's content, I trust?" Jack asked. "Time, Stephen. It waits for no man, be he captain or doctor."

"Or fool," Stephen said, adding, nearly instantaneously, "Forgive me, that sounded unkind. I meant to refer not to Mr. Pullings here but rather, to the three of us, carrying on what can only be considered an extremely ill-advised liaison."

"Tom being one of the three of us, would you not say that you did mean to refer to him as a fool, albeit one in the best possible company?"

Stephen's expression was wry. "Yes. I suppose you are right."

"Am I not always?" Jack beamed. "A rhetorical question only, Stephen, I assure you. I know full well my own failings, as well as I do my own strengths. My many successes and fine qualities. And yours and Tom's as well, of course, as a good captain ought to."

"Pray that you do, and will always find yourself in such happy circumstances," Stephen said.

"None so happy as these here right now," said Jack, reaching for Tom in a way that had little to do with any desire for measurements or numbers. "Now, before your discourse drives him to sleep again, may I suggest a change in topic? Better yet, an end to conversation altogether?"


End file.
